The Imperial March
by Victor15
Summary: The Stormtrooper Corps is the pride and joy of the Galactic Empire. Its ranks are filled with enlistees from worlds ranging from Coruscant to the Outer Rim, united only by a brutal training regimen and undying loyalty to the Emperor. TK 3699, one of these elite soldiers, reflects on his military career as he marches in the Empire Day parade.


**Empire Day. **

**Imperial Year 12 (7 BBY)**

When the order to march had first been given, the only thing Sergeant Darcol Fogdavi focused on was keeping in step with his platoon. Stepping off with the left foot. Maintaining his steps to the march being played by the imperial band. Maintaining his head and eyes straight forward and keeping his E-11 blaster rifle held at the high ready position, firmly against his chest. But within seconds, the results of years of training were obvious. Soon, keeping in step was second nature to Sergeant Fogdavi, or Trooper TK 3699 as he was called while in uniform. As 3rd Platoon, Aurek Company, of the 780th Stormtrooper Battalion moved forward as one unit, not a single footstep out of place, he began focusing on the cheering crowd.

And what a crowd it was. The official holonet reports claimed that there were a billion beings in attendance today. TK 3699 knew that the crowd was bigger than that. The imperial parade ground on Imperial Center (formerly known as Coruscant), capital of the Galactic Empire, had every single seat sell out weeks in advance. Millions of other sentient beings watched from nearby rooftops or windows in the skyscrapers that dotted the entire planet. The vast majority of the crowd was human. There were veterans of the clone wars in attendance, both former clone troopers and naval officers. There were the elderly, those who had lived through the corruption and instability of the Republic era and who were now enjoying their golden years in the newfound stability of the Empire. And there were the teenagers, young children, even babies in the arms of their mothers. These were the future generations that TK 3699, that every single stormtrooper and imperial officer fought for, so that these youngsters could live their lives free from fear.

For TK 3699, there were three people in particular in the crowd who he wanted to impress. His mother and father had taken the short hyperspace journey from their homeworld of Corellia. Both of them were veterans of the Clone Wars which had ended barely a decade ago. His father had served as a Naval Officer on board a Venator-class Star Destroyer. His mother had been a Republic Intelligence officer. With them was his younger sister, Midshipman Teadani Fogdavi, in her final year of study at the Imperial Naval Academy on Kuat. Within three standard months, she would be graduating and earning her commission as an Ensign in the Imperial Navy.

For a quick second, TK 3699 thought of how strange it would feel having to salute his kid sister every time they met while in uniform. And then his attention was directed to his company's guidon flag being quickly lowered in a sign of salute. Almost instinctively, all of Aurek company (besides for the rightmost column of stormtroopers) moved their head and eyes to the right in an "eyes right" motion, which mirrored the salute. And then TK 3699 saw who they were saluting.

He was standing at a podium, his hand raised in a sign of salute to his soldiers. Underneath his hood, his face was badly scarred, signs of the brutal damage he had taken when the Jedi traitors had made their assassination attempt. His eyes showed his age, and the stress which he had undergone daily for the past decades, of the great effort he had taken in eliminating the treasonous Jedi order, in creating an Empire to replace the weak and ineffective Republic, and to bring order and peace to his loyal subjects. He was surrounded by a legion of guards in red robes, their polarized visors hiding their faces, making them anonymous except as the protectors of the Emperor.

Standing next to the emperor were two other men, both of whom were also saluting the procession marching in front of them. One of them was a thin, grey haired officer dressed in the dress uniform of an Imperial Moff, his chest covered with medals earned during both the Clone Wars and the anti-insurgency operations which followed the founding of the empire. The other was an imposing figure clothed head to toe in black armor, his face covered by a menacing helmet. Both Grand Moff Tarkin and the Lord Vader were men to be looked up to, loyal servants of the emperor who struck fear into hearts of traitors and terrorists.

Being in the presence of any one of these three heroes would have been a momentous experience. Having the opportunity to parade in glory in before all three was a memory that TK 3699 would never forget, a story he would tell his children and grandchildren as he raised them to be loyal servants of the Empire just like himself.

So deep in the moment was TK 3699 that he almost didn't hear the command being given of "ready, front." Just in time, he managed to turn his head straight forward in unison with the rest of Aurek Company, marking the end of the salute. As they continued marching forward, amongst the cheers of the crowd and the deep _thump_s of the AT-AT Walkers marching in unison in front of them, TK 3399 began reminiscing on his entire military career.

Sure, there had been plenty of rough moments. The stormtrooper academy was no walk in the park, and nearly two of every three enlistees had washed out, to be pressed into service as regular Army cooks or mechanics. He vividly recalled the midnight forced marches, crawling face down in mud without his helmet, of having soreness in muscles he never even knew existed. He remembered the joy of graduation being almost immediately turned into the anxiety and fear of his first taste of combat, a peacekeeping operation on Cato Neimoidia. He thought about the dozens of strangers he had met at the academy, who turned in to friends, and then into brothers in arms, and then into names etched onto the fallen stormtrooper memorial.

But it was moments like these, marching shoulder to shoulder with his brothers in arms in front of his cheering family, in front of the Emperor himself, which made everything worth it.


End file.
